It’s been said that we “are what we eat,” but it may be more accurate to say that we are “what we think.” Having the right mindset can lead people to incredible levels of success. The same could be said in the opposite for a negative mindset. Unfortunately some of our most common habits are also the things that hold us back from success. Are these bad habits part of your life?

#1. Expecting Perfection

Humanity is fallible. Not a single person is perfect. We can strive for perfection and sometimes achieve it, but we aren’t 100% perfect. No one is. Mistakes happen and they help us to learn how we can be better. Expecting more than anyone could ever provide ultimately leads to negativity. At the end of the day, if you’ve given your all, you’ve done what you can.

#2. Say No

Far too often we feel obligated to say “yes” when we really want to say “no.” We don’t want to let others down. We want to feel like we’re included. We want to leave a lasting legacy. Pleasing others for short-term gains only helps the people being helped. Just say “no” when you don’t feel up to a project and don’t feel guilty about it. More importantly – don’t let others make you feel guilty about it. Take a stand for yourself.

#3. Eliminate the Negative Self-Talk

When we have hindsight, it’s easy to second-guess the decisions we’ve made in the heat of the moment. Instead of replaying incidents over and over again, be forgiving of yourself. Speak of the positive things you did accomplish, even when a mistake was made at the end of the day. We are often our own worst critic. Success stays away with too much criticism.

#4. Think About Tomorrow

The daily grind can be overwhelming sometimes. It seems like we’ll never get out of the routine we’ve got and eventually we just burn out. It doesn’t have to be this way if you’re willing to set future goals and then navigate towards them. Now is important, but where you’ll be 15 years from now is also important. Ignoring your goals to focus on today will never find long-term success.

#5. You’re Not an Island

People can be difficult sometimes. They’re judgmental. They create drama. They talk non-stop and don’t let you get your work done. People are also essential for success. We can’t do everything on our own. We need a support system in place to help us take advantage of what strengths others bring to the table.

Most importantly, you are your own person. You bring your own talents and experiences to every project. You cannot compare yourself to anyone else because of this uniqueness. Focus on your strengths, let the past stay in the past, and be open and honest in all things. When you can eliminate these bad habits that prevent success, you might just find happiness lurking around the next corner.

The boss might want you to come in on Saturday when you’ve planned a family outing. The spouse might suddenly be working late and forget to call you. The kids are running around with friends who aren’t the best of influences.

You just spilled coffee on your favorite jeans. It’s not coming out.

Bad days can start from the moment you roll out of bed and realize you’ve overslept by 45 minutes… or you’ve gotten up 45 minutes too early and can’t get back to sleep. How do you move on from this and make a good day out of a bad one?

Happiness Is Always a Choice

When bad things happen, it is easy to fall into the traps of despair. We feel like we’re out of control, moving on the currents which just take us from one bad event to the next. It’s easy to forget that we do have a choice.

We can choose to be happy.

It doesn’t matter what negative event happens. There is something positive that can be found in every moment. What you’ve got to do is figure out what has caused your bad day, why it makes you think of the day as being “bad,” and then begin dealing with that situation.

You can tell the boss you’re not coming in on Saturday, but you’d be happy to work a few hours on Sunday. You can send a text to your spouse to check-in on them instead of waiting for them to call. You can play with your kids to set a good example for them that they’ll eventually seek out in their friends.

Just don’t take off your pants until you get home unless you’ve got a spare pair somewhere at work.

Gratefulness Unlocks Your Happiness

What do you think about when you think of happiness? Whatever comes to mind, at the root of that thought is gratefulness. We are grateful for our families, our jobs, and the fact that we can afford to get coffee that we sometimes spill in our laps. Just because something not-so-great happens doesn’t mean the world is going to end. It just means that it is time to take action.

The human mind loves to support a winner. It wants to create great victories. This is why it seems like you gain time when you’re showing others some appreciation. There are a number of ways you can give yourself a personal victory as well. Eat a granola bar instead of a candy bar. Clear out your inbox for the first time ever. Make it through the day without spilling coffee.

You are in control. You decide what constitutes a victory. Experience one and the bad feelings begin to fade away.

Get Out of Your Routine

We all love a good routine. We do the same things every morning. Maybe you eat tacos on Tuesday and spaghetti on Friday. When there’s a bad day happening, we also have a routine for this. You likely hunker down at work to avoid more stress. You eat something you probably shouldn’t when you get home. Maybe you watch a favorite movie while you’re “coping” with the bad day.

You’re not coping. You’re distracting yourself.

Change this routine. Make the conscious choice to set a realistic expectation for each action you choose to take. Set goals. Maybe you can’t replace your favorite jeans this week because money is tight, but you can do it on the next paycheck. Look forward to the good and that makes the bad begin to disappear.

A bad day is going to stick around if you allow it to be your companion. Stop giving the negative energy the attention it wants and choose to be positive. Choose happiness. When you do that, you’ll find a bad day really isn’t so bad – even if you end up sporting a coffee stain all day.

Don’t you wish every day could be like how you feel on a Friday afternoon? The anticipation for two days off from work creates a certain giddiness that can last the entire day. It makes Friday fly by like it wasn’t even there. On Monday, we’re often filled with dread and despair and the day seems to plod along forever.

You can give every new day a chance for success. You can make every day feel like it’s Friday afternoon. Here are some ideas to help get you started.

#1. Give Yourself a Clean Start

So yeah… maybe you shouldn’t have called your boss a bad name under your breath loud enough for it to be heard. And maybe you forgot your child’s birthday. And maybe you forgot about that important sales deadline. That’s a bad day. The good news is that every day is a new day to create amazing things. Give yourself permission to have a clean start every day and it will change how you view everything.

#2. Remember Your Best Ideas

How many great ideas have come to you just as you’re about to fall asleep? Or while you’re sitting in a long meeting where there’s only fellow droning on and on about something? Capture those ideas before they escape. Apps like Evernote can help you keep track of your ideas and turn them into something profitable. A paper and pen can even work. Pretty soon you’ll notice something else beginning to happen: remembering your creative ideas spawns even more creativity.

#3. Get Ready For Tomorrow

One of the biggest energy drains that happen to all of us is our rushing to work or rushing out of work. Rushing causes us to miss important stuff because we have tunnel vision on the end result. Set yourself up for tomorrow by preparing what you’ll need right now. Clean off you desk before leaving for work. Pack your lunch before going to bed. Have any office supplies ready to go. By removing these common barriers, you’ll feel more productive and productivity makes time go by in a more positive way.

#4. Keep To Your Routine

Now that you’re thinking about changing some things up to help every day feel like Friday, make sure you stick to whatever routine you decide to try for awhile. Our routines, no matter how small they are, define who we are as people. We feel different if our normal routine is disrupted. Just try brushing your teeth in a different way and see how you feel… it doesn’t feel good. Give these new routines a chance and you might just be amazed at the results.

#5. Give Yourself Permission To Rest

Sure – you could finish that project right now. You could also take a break right now for a few minutes and feel refreshed as you complete your project 30 minutes from now. Rewards help us to work better. Give yourself the reward of a favorite book, some video game time, a favorite show, or even time on Facebook after working for awhile, but make sure the breaks don’t become an addiction that rob you of your focus.

Making every day feel like Friday takes some work, but it can be done. Consider adding these 5 ideas to your daily routine and you may rediscover why you’re so passionate about what you do. At the very least, the weekend will always feel like it is right around the corner.

Physical activity is a great way to reduce our stress levels and pump up the endorphins. Sometimes the best way to increase our happiness level is to have a good workout. If you are feeling lacking in the happiness area think about the last time you worked up a sweat. Physical activity boosts your confidence and your mood.

2 Outweigh negative thoughts with the positive.

Give your negative thoughts a spanking and slap on three positives to outweigh the negative. Figure out where your negative thoughts are coming from by trying to find three positive things about the topic. If you find more positives than negatives keep the source around. If you don’t, it is time to toss it out and start thinking instead about the positive effects of moving away from the source of your unhappiness. Take action towards the positive instead of letting the negative thoughts consume you.

3 Drop the worries—focus on what you can control

If you can’t control it don’t worry about it. So many of us get wrapped up in what-if land that we start feeling at home in it. Figuring out solutions to worst-case scenario gives us a false truth that we are somehow more prepared or more control of things that we have no effect on. It is better to focus your energy on things you can control and things that can make you happier.

4 Do a happy activity every day. Give yourself small acts of kindness.

Consider a time you were really, truly happy. How did you feel in that moment? Don’t you want more of that? Figure out what things make you happy and do one thing that makes you happy every day. This way, when things are not going as well as we hope they would we can find ways to lighten our mood and change the direction of our lives back to happy land.

5 Smile—a smile attracts happiness of others! It is a magnet that lights up the world.

One of the most unique things each person has is their smile. The shape of our teeth are actually pretty interesting and I don’t think I’ve ever met a person who looked better frowning than they do with a big ol’ smiley face! I honestly believe that we are each here to make a positive impact on others in our own unique way. One way to do that is to smile at others let them smile back and enjoy the unique energy flow that comes from a smile exchange.

6 Accept your life.

When we focus on our dreams we are more likely to achieve our dreams and as a result feel more content with the direction our lives have taken. To do this most effectively we have to push past the life un-acceptance speeches that start with “What if?” “If only? or “Someday” and rewrite our mentality with action verbs towards our dreams. Like Chris Prentiss says in Zen And the Art of Happiness “Everything that happens to me is the best possible thing that could happen to me”. Be the author of your moments and do what you can with your resources to reach your dreams but also accept life for what it is. You can’t change the past nor should you try. You are exactly who you are for a beautiful reason. Each of our happiness really depends on doing the work required to allow that reason to be expressed to the world.

7 Live in the present.

It is happy time all the time! Every moment is a new opportunity for us to be more alive and more in tune with the sounds, actions, and feelings of each moment. When we are present or “in the moment” we once again take our happiness away from its dependency on the happiness prescribed